There are a number of blatant contradictions, outright lies and misinformation, and sudden changes in direction that have occurred, or are occurring, almost simultaneously in recent days. And I’d like to take a moment to line them up and point them out to my progressive/left-leaning readers who may still be clinging to the traditional news outlets as their source of information regarding the political goings-on in these here United States of America.
So first of all – let’s look at the firebombings of Tesla dealerships (no, it’s not fake news, or overly panicked news. Just do a search for Tesla dealership firebombing). Employing the favorite tactic of the left, the concerned head tilt, I have to ask – do you condone or support these violent actions? Are you in favor of destroying businesses as a political statement? Do you enjoy threatening people who hold differing political views from you? Do you support vandalism of other people’s property? If so, why? If not, why are you remaining silent? Why are you not speaking out against such violent actions? As a follow up – if you own a Tesla, why did you buy it in the first place? Has that reasoning changed for you? Did you buy the Tesla because you wanted to be cool, wanted to own an electric car, or just wanted to demonstrate your commitment to the environment? FYI, you do realize that Volkswagen was started by actual Nazis, right? And, if you’re worried about past or present political views, Henry Ford was an anti-Semite of the highest order. If you get rid of your Tesla and don’t buy another electric car, are you still as committed to the environment?
Next up – Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security. None of the legitimate payments are stopping. DOGE wasn’t having you on when they discovered that Social Security payments are being made to people over 120 years old. Why do you object to stopping those payments? I’ve had a few people claim that I’m supporting cutting off much-needed assistance from Medicaid when I support auditing those agencies. Again, payments are not stopping. But the question remains, why do you object to audits? Audits are done to make sure processes and rules are being followed and that there is nothing hinky going on with money spent. Again, you can go to the White House website and the DOGE website to see what they’re doing for yourself. If you don’t believe them (why don’t you?), you can then go elsewhere to verify. I will warn you though, you will need to pay close attention to how things are worded on the legacy media sites and other left-leaning sites like Axios.
On that note, do you still listen to NPR and find that they are so wonderfully informative? Why? The current CEO of NPR, Katherine Maher, was caught lying about what she said in past X posts/tweets, said she’d never read some books but in tweets claimed she had, and generally couldn’t come up with any good answers to questions in a Congressional hearing. You can watch videos at the link here. I know many of you will sneer at the link to Redstate and I’ll ask why? Are you afraid of reading something that contradicts what you “know” to be “true?” Why are you so afraid of debate?
On a slightly funnier note, I see a number of people posting favorable, even sycophantic, comments about Cory Booker’s marathon speech in the well of the Senate. He was filibustering NOTHING. There was nothing going on. He just decided to talk for over 24 hours. Oh, and the record for filibuster that he supposedly broke with his non-filibuster? The DEMOCRATS filibuster of the 1964 CIVIL RIGHTS ACT. That’s right. Yes, Booker is a member of the party that tried to stop passage of the landmark civil rights act and founded the KKK.
Yes, a large of the anti-Semitic sentiment in this country originates with the Democratic Party. They are the party of resistance to Reconstruction after the Civil War. They hated the Republicans for freeing the slaves. They founded the KKK to keep freed slaves “in line” and began the first gun-control movements in order to prevent blacks from owning guns. All of the party planks you support were all conceived in the name of white, anti-semitic supremacy by the Democratic party. Think about that for a moment.
In “why are you upset about that?” category of things: Here’s some more detailed info for you:
- That “innocent” immigrant who was sent to El Salvador with all the Tren de Aragua members? He is a member of MS-13 – not exactly an innocent bystander.
- Being anti-COVID vax is not the same as the general anti-vax sentiment. The media is conflating those two positions in order to distract you from the very real problems surrounding the real side-effects of the COVID vaccines and the collusion between Fauci, Brix, the medical community, and the pharmaceutical companies in rolling those out without any testing, up to and including the CDC changing the definition of “vaccine” in 2022.
- “Defunding” Planned Parenthood – that organization has a little over $2 BILLION in income for 2024, with more than that in assets. TWO BILLION DOLLARS in income. Yeah, they’re struggling. And FYI, that Dobbs decision you’re freaking out about? That not only returned abortion policy to the states, but on the flip side, it simultaneously prevents the federal government from imposing a federal ban. And, as I’ve said before – if you’re so worried about women in states where abortion has been made illegal, start your own 501(c)3 to provide free or very low cost transport to states where abortion is legal. Or don’t you want to help those women?
- Oh, let’s look at the whole chat on Signal thingy where Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally added to the chat group. Was that a total fuck up on Mike Waltz’s part? Yes. Was national security compromised and lives put a risk? No. Does the White House need to pay attention to things like that? Of course. Next, ask yourself why Goldberg didn’t reveal anything? And then ask, if he’s so concerned about national security, why would he publicly announce he was privy to such “war plans?” Were you worried when it was discovered that Hillary Clinton was storing classified docs on an unsecure server that was housed in some dude’s bathroom? Were you worried when it was discovered that Joe Biden had classified docs in boxes in his garage? But you were worried when you found out that Trump had unclassified docs in a secure location at Mar-a-Lago. Why? How was that worse?
There are a number of books that have been released recently regarding the cover up of Biden’s ongoing and rapid slide into dementia which, they all now admit, began before the 2020 presidential election. There are a couple of things you need to pay attention to in that debacle. First off, those books got released in the last couple weeks. The authors did not start writing them in the last couple weeks – they released them. This means they’ve been writing those books for at least a couple of years. What does that tell you about their role in covering up the fact that the man you voted for was not the man making decisions affecting this nation? That in fact there were a whole lot of unelected individuals signing EOs and making decisions regarding national security all based on their own preferences. Finally, given the loud mea culpas in these books, ask yourself why didn’t any of these “journalists” report on Biden’s health while he was president? Why did they loudly and vociferously go along with the cover up? You complain that Elon Musk is unelected, but he was appointed by a competent President to carry out that President’s action plan. Do you see the difference?
I will conclude this rant by noting once again, it is your responsibility to broaden your information gathering horizons. It is on you to pay attention to what politicians, news media, and federal officials are saying and how they are saying it. You are expecting these people to do a job, you need to keep them on their toes, and you need to ask the hard questions. YOU and nobody else.
You call yourself informed and intelligent. Well, act like it.
That goes for conservatives who are refusing to critique anything or listen to other points of view as well.
We are all responsible for how this country is run. It is not above our paygrade or our outside our purview. Our livelihoods and lives are at stake.
Quit following the crowd, quit denigrating those whose opinions differ from yours, and start thinking for yourself.
You owe it to yourself.
39 Responses
Don’t support firebombing Tesla. But I won’t buy a car produced by a Nazi. As for VW, it did originate with Nazis… but that was 80 years ago. The world changed and VW has changed. Speaking of change, the Democratic Party of 100 to 150 years ago is not the Democratic Party of today. And the Republican Party of today has been transformed in large part to… MAGA. Racism and anti-LGBTQ sentiment remain popular in MAGA folk. I appreciate your rant. You make some points. But much is oversimplified. Take care, Professor. I am still proud to call you my classmate and friend.
Where’s your evidence (besides CNN and besides the one video from the inauguration which is bullshit if you actually watch the whole thing) that Musk is an actual Nazi? What written or spoken statements do you have? What organizations has he belonged to that are Nazi-affiliated? Besides the frothing at the mouth CNN/MSNBC hosts and one video, what evidence of Musk’s purported Nazi beliefs do you have?
You’re the one calling him a Nazi, counselor. In an innocent until proven guilty legal setting, I expect you, the accuser to produce incontrovertible evidence.
A Nazi or a Fascist today is anyone the Left sees who opposes their Communist Revolution.
That’s been basically true since the beginning of Operation Barbarosa.
What we find is that left and right don’t just not talk to each other anymore, they don’t share the same information space. We stopped watching or reading 100% of main stream media. It is all lies and untruth. The left laps up every word and believes every single word as truth which is how everyone they disagree with is now worse than hitler and must be HATED and despised and IGNORED. it’s game over now. The intolerance of the left is unhinged and really dangerous.
The Democratic Party of today is still burning violence symbols on lawns, burning churches and synagogues, killing law-abiding minorities for their skin color or religion, and supporting violent terror gangs out to deprive US citizens of their civil rights.
They have better funding. That is all that has changed.
” Racism and anti-LGBTQ sentiment remain popular in MAGA folk.” Are you sure of that? Because I’m seeing quite a few minorities and gay folks actually in the party, some working for the Trump Administration. You know, people like Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Republican’s get out the vote guru Scott Pressler. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, Representative Anna Paulina Luna, and Virginia Lt. Governor Winsome Sears also come to mind.
And as Suburbanbanshee pointed out, the Democratic party is still the party that supports segregation, violent protests, and arson.
I have thoughts. I have gone to whitehouse.gov, as you suggested, and will pursue what you have said about audits — and try to wade through the difference between administrative leave and termination in the reports of firings in the six-digits range.
Social Security represents a significant part of our retirement income. As long as we stay in this house and both of us are alive, our checks will likely be on autopilot — unless the young engineers (who are purportedly going to replace the COBOL codebase in months rather than years with the assistance of AI) tasked with the update make a big mess. Elon Musk’s way of doing business appears to be break something big and the rebuild the parts that matter — not a big deal on a social media site but a very big deal with checks people depend on. This is not a trivial concern to us. We are also concerned that, given the reductions in customer service and the current propensity of the Social Security site to crash, we may have difficulty changing our address if we have to downsize — or change our status if one of us is no longer living. These are also not trivial concerns.
Auditing to identify waste is good. I would feel better if it weren’t being directed by someone who says that empathy will be the downfall of Western Civilization, and who boasts about sending Federal agencies through the woodchipper or prances around the CPAC stage with the biggest chainsaw that I have ever seen.
As for firebombing Tesla dealerships or damaging cars: of course I don’t approve of that. And I have said so repeatedly. But I am baking a Schadenfreude pie to celebrate the way Tesla stock is tanking. The walloping our investments are taking thanks to the tariff two-step? Not so much.
I always appreciate your willingness to listen, Laura. As for tanking Tesla stock… that’s in almost every pension plan out there, so cheering it on is cheering on the destruction of the value of pension plans and the company sponsored sides of 401(k)s. Those working now are getting their future screwed over by those who are deliberately tanking such a big stock as Tesla. Nothing happens in a vacuum.
In the end, the tariffs will mean that incomes will rise and jobs will return. Go look at the DOGE site – there is a list of the tariffs imposed on US goods by other countries. And then go look for the tariff lists *before* Trump’s proposed increases. We were getting majorly screwed over by other countries, and especially the EU.
And, as a Social Security recipient, I have NO fears of legitimate payees being bereft of the EARNED money.
Where 90% of the identified waste is, is in SSI/Disability payments.
Even in pre-Trump days, a potentially ineligible person would have their check cut off. They would need to establish their identity and eligibility to resume payments, and receive back payments.
They’re not going to respond. They can’t admit that they’re wrong, or that they’re stupid, or that their ‘heroes’ have been lying to them for ages.
They can’t remember what happened last month, much less several years ago.
They have no ethics or standards or morals.
They believe in violence and have 0 issues with it, when it’s advancing their beliefs.
They look the other way whenever one of theirs commits crimes, no matter how heinous.
In short, they back evil, they support evil, they are evil.
This is right on.
One small correction, Professor… Dobbs removed the ruling made by the court. With no legislation in Congress for or against abortion, it was returned to the states. It didn’t inhibit Congress’ ability to pass legislation for or against it in the future. They can still do that which would result in another inevitable case/decision for the Supreme Court. It was the right decision. We are a Republic and this is a state issue to be the decided by the people of each state.
And, now my rant:
The “tolerant left” continues to prove they, or at least their leadership and organizers, are only tolerant of those people who share their world view. They seem to still be completely mystified by the 2024 election results and doing little to nothing to “right the ship.” I think we’ll find Gavin Newsom and Rahm Emanuel emerge, or continue to emerge, as forces within their party that shift their rhetoric to the middle and embrace the rebirth of masculinity as a positive attribute. Tim Walz’s attempts to take this mantle have been laughable at best, and I think that democratic voters will reject AOC and him as standard bearers moving forward.
With that being said, Wisconsin and Florida showed us that Trump-motivated voters continue to disengage in elections where he’s not on the ballot at what appears to be a rate of at least 50-70%. POTUS needs to find a way to convert them into every year voters. However, It was good to see Wisconsin passed Voter ID.
It’s not just Trump who has to find a way for those voters to stay motivated, the Republican Party needs to work on it too. They need to ditch the RINOs and RINO attitude if they expect to keep those voters.
Agreed
The “tolerant left” continues to prove they, or at least their leadership and organizers, are only tolerant of those people who share their world view.
Because Progressivism is a religion. And huge numbers of Americans are much more captured by that worldview than think so. It has become embedded in so much of our culture (in the very broadest sense).
POTUS needs to find a way to convert them into every year voters.
I don’t think Trump can do that. Mainly because he is really still a Democrat – an old-school Dem, but ultimately a Dem.
What we need is a concerted effort by Constitutionalist conservatives to “win the hearts and minds” of the electorate, AND to drag the Republican party back in that direction, as well. Get out there and talk to people and work back to basic principles that make things like “freedom” and “free markets” and personal responsibility groovy again.
Sorry, but you’re mistaken. The Dobbs decision overturned Rowe vs Wade by the explicit argument that the Constitution does not grant, implicitly or explicitly, any federal authority on the subject of abortion. It is a retained power, per the Tenth amendment. So any attempt by Congress to legislate on abortion runs afoul of Dobbs. This is now settled law.
I agree with what Laura said, especially regarding Social Security. Stating that “payments are not stopping” doesn’t address what is happening with the SSA. If you destroy it’s ability to function effectively by requiring in person identity verification and then close offices you are in actuality going to stop certain payments. No one currently making those decisions is remotely concerned about how people who cannot handle online access or drive hours to get to an office and then wait potentially hours when they are in a wheelchair will accomplish all of that. The fact that U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick publicly stated the most “let them eat cake” response to concerns regarding what is happening with Social Security does not engender any confidence that the current people in charge give a damn about anyone who can’t bring a billion dollars to table. Just for clarity that would be most of the American people.
As for audits, Social Security has the least amount of provable fraud and waste of almost any government department. Even your guys can’t seem to prove TONS of waste and fraud. You, and DOGE, keep bringing up these 120 year old people, but whether you like it or not in the grand scheme of MILLIONS of Americans serviced by SSA it’s not even drop in the bucket. This ongoing harping about a miniscule amount of trouble makes me doubt their sincerity. It makes me doubt that any massive waste and fraud is happening. You know that in a system as large as SS, again, servicing millions of people there will be some fraud, there will be some waste, there will be some mistakes. It’s a numbers game and in truth the SSA has been winning it better than almost any other entity that comes even close to its size. So again I don’t think the goal is efficiency or correction. I think the goal is total destruction to move towards privatizing.
As of this morning the economy is cratering. All of our retirement investments are crashing. Privatizing only sounds good in a stable economy that is being managed by a thoughtful, educated, knowledgeable and careful government. A government that is concerned with the reality of the average American. I have serious doubts about the current Administrations motives based on the evidence of what is happening right now.
We haven’t had a thoughtful, knowledgeable, educated bureaucracy in AGES. Notice I said “bureaucracy” not “government.” Those are two different entities which get conflated by the Powers That Be because you are meant to believe that those civil servants have your best interests at heart and will do what it takes to make sure you are taken care of. Why on God’s green Earth would you trust a bureaucrat to take care of you? And what makes you think that up until now, the elected members of government had any control over the bureaucracy? The screaming coming from some quarters puts me in mind of the Shakespeare quote: Methinks he doth protest too much.
Where’s the data on which offices are being closed? Is there a list? Do you have evidence there is NO fraud with SSA? And how do you address the fact that we’ve been told SSA was going to collapse since Bush 41? What exactly did Obama and Biden do to refill the SSA funds that Clinton and Obama and Democratic Congresses took out?
My understanding on the requirement for in person verification of address changes is that the people auditing the system say that 40% (forty percent!) of the changes asked for on the phone are fraudulent requests. You’ll have to look that up for yourself because I read the story and moved on, but if that’s why this change is being made, that’s important to know.
The OIG report, which came out before Trump was re-elected, estimated that there were over $70 billion in improper payments through SSA from 2015 to 2022. A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you’re talking real money. And the reason changes in phone reporting are being made is because about 40% of all the fraud in SSA payments is done by phone.
And the fact that DOGE just found evidence of illegal aliens being issued SSNs and signed up for benefits should really concern everyone.
I watched the guy in his first term. His biggest mistake was in believing Fauci, but it took a while for Fauci’s scumbaggery to become evident, and the Chief Editor of Harrison’s TEXTBOOK OF MEDICINE isn’t the first guy you suspect of skullduggery.
Of course, the answer was obvious as to who SHOULD have run the response: the Chief Administrator and the Chief Medical Officer of UTMB, Galveston—check out the places where BSL-IV labs exist, plus a State Tertiary Referral Hospital and a Health Care system that does much indigent care and the answer becomes obvious—but unless you are a Genius MD who has done lots of public health and GRADUATED from UTMB, not obvious to everyone at first.
I trust Trump. He took a bullet. He makes no money from this, and he’s too old to care about that. He’s genuinely POTUS because he’s patriotic and has belief in the USA.
Far from perfect, but none of us are close to perfect. He’s doing what I voted him to do.
Nice assessment, Becky.
” the Chief Editor of Harrison’s TEXTBOOK OF MEDICINE isn’t the first guy you suspect of skullduggery.”
Not by default, no… but there was sufficient public evidence to think he was full of BS within a month (max) after the lockdowns started, and people who pay attention to him had been pointing out his duplicity and bureaucratic BS for… well, a couple of decades or more, actually.
A great example “credentialed not competent”.
I’m still convinced that Signalgate was an intentional “Non-Intentional” news release. Most likely to get a narrative out in front of the American people using a non friendly media organization and reporter.
Tesla Terror Ataccks, either drop the convicted into an Air Curtain Incinerator (Look it up on YouTube) or use piano wire on them, Nuff Said on that matter.
At my work (Cabinet level, subagency) [most of ya’ll benefit either directly or indirectly from their service] I get to see the waste up close and personal as well as we get to see the first order effects of DEI before they make the national news as they have recently. Sadly due to my companies and our clients’s social media and several serious documents I signed as conditions of my employment, I can’t say much else other than the good apples are getting out while the getting is good and it’s the bad apples that are hiring attorneys and becoming HUGE fans of thier Unions…
A side comment here:
The democrats are the ones that raided the Social Security fund and used that money for other purposes.
The Democrats are the ones who decided to put an income tax on Social Security benefits.
The Democrats are the ones who decided to start paying out Social Security benefits to people who never put money into the fund.
The Democrats are the ones who decided to start giving Social Security money to people for reasons other than retirement.
And yet everyone is worried about the REPUBLICANS destroying the fund? When it’s the DEMOCRATS who have done all the damage?
WTH?
Social Security Disability was passed in 1956 and signed by Eisenhower.
Social Security income tax was passed in 1983 and signed by Reagan.
I am unable to find any examples of Social Security funds being transferred to the General Fund but numerous transactions in the other direction.
The Democrats have much to answer for but screwing up Social Security was a bipartisan process.
There never was a Social Security Fund. Never. The bankers wouldn’t let them create one because after 5 years SS would own every public company on the stock market and we would essentially become socialist or communist. So Social Security is a debit on the government’s fund. Then when large pension funds like BlackRock came about they essentially controlled the stock market and all publicly traded companies. That’s not much different from what the bankers in the 1930s were worried about. Nobody really has a good answer to that. Perhaps investing in yourself or your family is much better than investing in “Funds” as funds end up killing innovation as they run the companies that should be running themselves.
Becky can you comment on the Tariffs? I need to understand the pro side of these (other than the very long term idea that manufacturing will come back to the US). What upsides do you see in our new relationship (or lack of it) with Canada, UK, Japan, etc (our previous allies). Where do you see the diplomacy headed? Especially with the EU which is your specialty – how will this affect its chances of collapsing?
Tariffs are always a tricky deal. But in this case, Trump is attempting to balance out tariffs paid by US companies with tariffs collected by the US. And the comments about raising import tariffs seem to be working. For example, Vietnam, which charges around 40+ percent tariffs (higher in some cases) lowered some tariffs as soon as Trump said anything. In the end (and now I can’t find the link – still looking for it), the General Secretary of the Vietnam Communist Party said tariffs on US goods would be lowered to five percent. So it worked. Tariffs in general for the US make up for the essential slave labor that China and Vietnam use to produce goods (which is why so many American companies like Apple have moved manufacturing to China). Americans won’t work for those wages, but tariffs make American workers more competitive in the global market because even though it costs more to produce goods in America, companies can’t make that up by using slave labor (and in the case of China it is literal slave labor) in other countries.
And the countries you listed are not “previous” allies. They are still current allies. Like it or not, the US is still the primary military and economic power in the world and other countries will still have to do business with us. Canada has also in the last few days agreed to lower some of their tariffs on US goods (for ex, they charge over 100% on some dairy and meat products). As for the EU, they charge higher prices on goods coming from the US as well. A lot of the screaming is because the US is threatening to impose matching tariffs on goods coming into the US. The UK has a matching 10% tariff right now with the US. The EU states are in a tighter position because they cannot negotiate individually even if they wanted to. The EU is not going to collapse solely because of US tariffs. If/when it collapses it’s going to be under its own weight, the too rapid move toward complete integration, and the dislike of original members for newer members. Tariffs will be a part of that, but not the final straw.
[…] THINGS TO ASK YOUR FRIENDS WHO TRUST THE MSM: Just Saying. […]
A slight correction. The postwar Volkswagen company was started by the British occupation forces, using the existing Wolfsburg factory that that Nazis had built ostensibly for the KdF Wagen (the VW Type I aka Beetle), though most of its production went to the jeep-like military Kubelwagen variant.
When discussing the NSDP origin of the Volkswagen, it should be pointed out that members of the BMW-controlling Quandt family were actual member of the Nazi party.
Becky,
I was thinking – in your spare time could you provide a discussion/comparison on the various news outlets and how they miscommunicate information. I am talking particularly about the ones that will just jump on a topic to promote lies and hysterics. The one that I see pop up regularly is “The Irish Star”. I know there are many others out there. Of course you could also add the bigger ones out there that people think they can trust.
Thank you!!!!
Point of detail. Not the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Strom Thurmond’s filibuster of 24h18m was in 1957 against the 1957 Civil Rights Act (The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was the first federal legislation aimed at protecting civil rights since Reconstruction, signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on September 9, 1957. It established the Civil Rights Commission and the Civil Rights Division within the Justice Department to address voting rights and investigate discrimination, although its impact on voter registration was limited.)
Strom Thurmond was the first US Senator to ever be elected by a write-in campaign in 1956. He and the voters thought the Democratic Party candidate was too namby pamby on racial issues. Strom was doing what he said he would and what the voters sent him there to do. That the overwhelming consensus now is that he was wrong just shows how much views have changed on this issue. Not to mention how much Strom changed on this issue himself.
“Not to mention how much Strom changed on this issue himself.”
Did he actually, though? Considering that the Democratic party is STILL the party of racism, I don’t think there is.
You’d likely be surprised, but some of us liberals actually do branch out and read other news sources. But some of the things that send me over the edge come directly from POTUS via Truth Social. The guy seems unhinged.
I don’t agree with firebombing Teslas, I did question Biden’s ability to lead, and I understand that auditing is a good thing. I also get that this isn’t the first time that non-elected personnel and are guiding those we did elect. But that guy called Social Security a Ponzi scheme and that alarms me since I am trying to retire in a few years. Speaking of that, the idea of retirement jumped further out of reach for me this week as our stock market dropped. And, again on Truth Social, POTUS said he didn’t on purpose.
Blind faith in our leaders – on both sides of the aisle – has been typical of Americans. We tend to treat our leaders like heros who can save us. We all need to collectively stop and be bold enough to take a hard look at those leaders and criticize their decisions. I could start right here with Gavin Newsom. I challenge you to take on Trump. Had Barack Obama done even a third of things Trump has done, you would have been all over him, criticizing his use of social media, or refusing to attend the inauguration of the next President to take office.
In his first 75 days in office, our President has caused chaos. I am not better off today than I was on Jan 19. And I’m not getting this information from some news source. One look at my stocks and my grocery bill will tell me that. And the guy who has cause at least some of this just shrugs it off on his own social media platform.
Barack Obama was overly fond of EOs to go after his enemies – his comment about using the IRS to harass his opponents (made in AZ), and I criticized Republicans who harassed the Tea Party folks because they were emblematic of a new direction in the GOP. Obama was behind the derailing of Biden and the pushing of Harris, then he was behind the derailing of Harris. I do have problems with the way that Trump has gone after some of these issues, however, I have fewer problems than I ever had with others. Obama did far more questionably legal things than Trump has done. His comment to Medvedev about waiting until his second term to take on Russia issues because then he’d have “more leeway” is one. Russia Russia Russia. The entire Russia hoax that came out in Trumps first term, the abject failure of anyone in the Democratic Party to do anything about Hunter Biden, the actions of Hunter to grant access for cash from the Chinese and Ukrainians to his father during the Obama administration, the blanket pardons granted by the Biden Admin to everybody, including for anything they might be charged with in the future (you can’t use a pardon that way). The Democratic Party has engaged in far more extra-legal shenanigans than Trump. And yes, there is chaos. Change brings chaos and uncertainty. I don’t worship Trump, I’m not blind to things believe it or not. However, I am totally in favor of cleaning up the bureaucracy, I am against violence being used against political opponents (where has Trump done that?), I am massively in favor of deporting illegal aliens, especially criminals like Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gang members. Tariffs have not gone into effect yet so increases on goods are not a result of that. My stocks have gone down too – they also dropped like a rock in ’08-09, and again in ’21-22. My grocery bill has remained steady.
Musk opened Twitter/X back up to *all* speech. Yes, people will get insulting and mean, but that’s the nature of free speech. None of us is going to go through life without being insulted, offended, or disagreed with. Prior to Musk buying X, the Biden Admin pressured Meta and X to censor comments on both platforms. In this case I do believe Zuckerberg because he had a lot to lose by admitting he was pressured by the government/White House to suppress/censor information and comments on his platforms. Twitter did the same thing. Many of the now-former employees said the same. That is appalling and should be appalling to everyone. X is now a truly free-wheeling platform of all kinds of information, conspiracy theories, and everything in between – as it should be. Yes, the purchase of X was instrumental in helping Trump… because those who supported Trump or simply disliked Biden finally realized that there were tons of other people out there who agreed with them. They truly weren’t the only ones in the room who disagreed with Biden. you’ve had the luxury of having almost everyone around you agree with you and your positions. Now you’re seeing that you’re in the minority and that’s hard to take. Trust me. I’ve spent years biting my tongue so I would get hired, would keep my job, would get raises and promotions (lost one a few years ago). I know what it feels like to be in the political minority, or at least perceived political minority. I agree – it’s absolutely no fun at all. These are interesting times and it’s going to be rocky, but I believe we will come out better and stronger for it.
“But that guy called Social Security a Ponzi scheme and that alarms me since I am trying to retire in a few years.”
SS is a Ponzi scheme. They take money from the people putting money in today and use it to pay the people that paid in before, just like Ponzi himself did.
The people that created SS commented privately (and in writing) that it wasn’t good for the long term, that it would fail. It was implemented following similar schemes in Europe, and the politicians loved it because it was a tax increase that the people could be suckered into liking. The money went into the general account, with the promises set for a long time later.
” Had Barack Obama done even a third of things Trump has done,”
President Pen-and-Phone set the precedent for most of the Trump’s most-objected-to-by-the-left actions and did FAR worse than Trump has done. A third? Try triple. That would be closer to accurate.
“In his first 75 days in office, our President has caused chaos.”
While at least shallowly accurate, I think a better description than “chaos” would be “disruption”. Changing processes *always* causes some level of disruption, good or bad. And Trump has at least been open, honest, and upfront about that, publicly saying that it will be unpleasant for a bit.
It will be unpleasant for a bit. When you’ve been living wildly beyond your means using credit cards, when you start to clean up the mess, *it is very unpleasant*. NOT cleaning up the mess will be *even more* unpleasant, though, so it’s still the least bad option.
That’s assuming the new changes make things better than the old stuff. I think “better than under Biden” is a ***VERY*** low bar… but if you think it will actually turn out even as bad, well, then no, the “chaos” is not worth it. But make *that* argument, not just a claim of “chaos”.
Well said. As for your four points:
1. I haven’t stayed up to the minute on everything, but as I understand it he is in fact a member of a foreign gang that has been designated a terrorist organization, and his “do not deport” designation was revoked. I don’t believe he’s a citizen, which means he has no right to be here.
2. The legacy media, and the politicians, have been intentionally confusing the issue on traditional vaccines and the modified-RNA treatments from the beginning. There is a movie called Virulent that did the same, which I got a sneak peak of about two years ago.
3. The federal government shouldn’t be funding any private organization, period. And I’ve been hearing for decades how abortion is just a small part of Planned Parenthood’s operations. If so, they should be able to fund that service privately.
4. I’m still convinced that Signalgate was an intentional policy operation by the Trump Administration to light a fire under the EU’s arse to get it to take its own military funding and defense seriously. I think Goldberg’s initial instinct was correct, he was getting played. My first impression when it was reported was, “That’s not good. At the least it’s embarrassing.” But when he published the actual chat messages, and then read Francis Turner’s blog about, the light bulb came on (not quite as dramatically as Bill Murray and “They framed Nixon.” but close) and it makes the most sense to me as a backhanded way to impress upon the EU and it’s citizens that the US is serious about making the EU responsible for it’s own interests.
In “why are you upset about that?” category of things: Here’s some more detailed info for you:
That “innocent” immigrant who was sent to El Salvador with all the Tren de Aragua members? He is a member of MS-13 – not exactly an innocent bystander.
“detailed info”? Before making claims as in above, you might want to do some research to vet them: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ca4.178258/gov.uscourts.ca4.178258.13.0_1.pdf
From the opinion:
Whatever the merits of the 2019 determination of the Immigration Judge (“IJ”) regarding Abrego Garcia’s connection to
MS-13, (footnote 8) the Government presented “[n]o evidence” to the district court to “connect[]
Abrego Garcia to MS-13 or any other criminal organization.”
…
If the Government wanted to prove to the district
court that Abrego Garcia was a “prominent” member of MS-13, it has had ample
opportunity to do so but has not — nor has it even bothered to try.
footnote 8 Even then, the Government’s “evidence” of any connection between Abrego
Garcia and MS-13 was thin, to say the least. The Government’s claim was based on (1)
Abrego Garcia “wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie,” and (2) “a vague, uncorroborated
allegation from a confidential informant claiming he belonged to MS-13’s ‘Western’ clique
in New York—a place he has never lived.” S.A. 146 n.5; Mot. for Stay Add. at 10–11.
Next up – Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security. None of the legitimate payments are stopping. DOGE wasn’t having you on when they discovered that Social Security payments are being made to people over 120 years old.
Do you have any factual proof of payments actually being made to individuals aged 120 or older? Can you point to any prosecutions of those alleged fraudsters?
Yes, it’s true that millions of people remain listed in Social Security databases without a “death” date in their records. But that’s very different from payments being issued to them.
Imagine a child was born in 1905. That person received a Social Security number when the program began and died in 1940. Nobody notified the Social Security Administration of that person’s death because processes weren’t in place to do so. That person’s record still exists today — without the death field marked with a death date.
What would be the cost to the Social Security Administration to track down each and every person’s record, without a death date, when no payments are being made to that person? Wouldn’t that be a waste of the government’s time and money?
Elon Musk could have been straightforward and simply said that many Social Security records are incomplete.. He didn’t. Instead, “…during an Oval Office press briefing, Musk claimed that a review by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) uncovered Social Security payments being made to individuals listed as 150 years old.” (some sources: wired, cbsnews, foxnews, foxbusiness, apnews, theguardian, washingtonpost). Trump then used this in his speech to the joint session of Congress spreading misinformation.